1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method and an information processing apparatus, and, in particular, to an information processing system, an information processing method and an information processing apparatus in which usage of a predetermined device is prevented according to an intention of a true owner of the predetermined device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A device which is used in a condition where the device is loaded in a computer, for example, an information recording disk or such (a hard disk, a flexible disk, a CD, a DVD or such) is used, no particular authentication processing is required in general. However, in such a case, if this device is lost, stolen or so, confidential information written therein, if any, may leak out. As a countermeasure thereto, password authentication may be applied, for example for authenticating a user.
However, a case may be assumed where a person who illegally obtains a device such as the above-mentioned information recording disk, a compact flash or such loads the same in a computer which the person himself or herself has. In such a case, as long as the person has a necessary drive unit such as a computer to drive such a device of the same type, the person can use the relevant device (disk or such) even when the person is not a true owner of the device. Accordingly, the relevant problem cannot be solved merely by means of the above-mentioned password authentication method, which is applied for starting up a drive unit such as a computer.
A conventional example discloses a method in which, with the use of a pass phrase (long password), data is protected in a notebook personal computer (made by IBM, product name: ‘Think Pad A31p’). In this method, a user inputs a pass phrase, the contents stored in a disk are encoded therewith, and thus, usage of the same data by another person is prevented. However, in this method, the pass phrase itself may leak out in an environment in which the personal computer is shared by a plurality of persons, and thus, sufficient protection of the data may not be provided.